Should teachers be allowed to say "Slavery was bad and it should not happen again"?

The title says it all. Should a teacher be allowed to say "slavery was bad and should not happen again". But that's not really the real question. The real question is whether or not teachers should be allowed to make moral claims in school. This is a moral claim. Yet it does seem alright to see in school. So why not say it?

Now let's take this a step further.
"Racism is bad and MLK Jr was right to oppose it". Regardless of definitions of words, can a teacher say this? Why? Argue the details all you want, add any qualifier you want. Can a teacher say that?

Now I want to bring in a wrinkle-the debate on CRT. Despite multiple threads dedicated to pointing out CRT is not an issue, people frame it the statement above as that. Now I think it's fair to say people will agree to say the thing from above. But people might also use the language of CRT to ban such language. When you ban CRT, you can also end up banning statements like "Racism is bad and MLK Jr was right to oppose it" or ""slavery was bad and should not happen again". Do I think people who support banning CRT want to get rid of talk of slavery, racism or the past? No but it begs the question how will people who support CRT get around the problem. I don't think they can. But prove me wrong.

 

But that’s not what crt does. CRT assumes that everything from laws, to social norms, to economic status is the product of racism. It has the answer before any facts are looked at. Teaching it in college is one thing. It’s the right setting for that type of discussion. Teach kids as young as five years old that because they are born white they have an advantage over their non white peers because of racism is an entirely different matter. Psychological it’s damaging to both white and non white children who are not cognitively ready to separate the distinction of philosophical discussion and me. Think of how kids often feel it’s their fault when parents get divorced. Same concept. You will instill in white kids that their is something evil/racist/wrong about them by virtue of being born white and you will teach black kids that they are inferior by virtue of being born black. That’s how they will internalize that. Your setting them up to view each other as us vs them. And that’s why CRT taught to school children is an awful idea

 

We've always said that. That isn't the problem.

 

"Yeah and that's why we need to stop talking about the Civil Rights era! It makes people think about how the government created racist policies that benefit white people and the efficacy of efforts to stop said discrimination. That makes kids feel different. We need to stop talking about it."

 

What do you mean? Can you clarify?

 

a good teacher would NEVER say that "slavery was bad and should never happen again." a good teacher would assign a reading, maybe uncle tom's cabin or 12 years a slave, or maybe a collection of articles including a few from fredrick douglas and maybe someone who supported slavery. then, a good teacher might ask questions.

was slavery good for the economy? is it ok to breed slaves for various characteristics? would you like to be sold to another plantation and separated from your family? how did slavery benefit the slaves? what if your master wanted to have sex, would you do it? would you have a choice? etc etc etc

 

Slavery was bad (moral) because it was bad for the economy (justification).
Slavery was bad (moral) because it separated families (justification).
Frederick Douglas said x (who promotes abolition)
X says ending slavery was bad (and with all the reasons stated was... probably really wrong).

Those are moral statements. That's moral justifications. This is how you make propaganda. You're just indoctrinating students in 'CRT' in a round about way.

 

"Should teachers be allowed to say "Slavery was bad and it should not happen again"?"

some republicans would call that teaching CRT

 

They would! And I'm trying to see how the people who think 'CRT needs to be banned' make sure that doesn't happen. I don't think they thought the consequences of their beliefs out.

 

as I was a child once, I will say, race was not a thing until we watched roots in like 4th grade, no one gave it much thought

kids don't see race until taught, so I do prefer our racial history teaching to wait until at least jr high

the problem now is the internet, kids are exposed to hate much sooner, many are not even taught by friends or parents, but rather stragers online

 

Learning about people that were beaten and treated like property speaks for itself. A teacher doesn’t need to insert opinion into it

 

I remember one of the first things about race I was taught was the Holocaust. We were taught the person who helped Jews escape Lithuania was a hero. Should we have been taught that?

 

That's an opinion. You realize that right? The idea that slaves are people. It's not one we challenge, but it's an opinion none the less.

 

Weve always said slavery is bad, slavery happened. let's not do that again.

What we don't need is the systemic racist bullshit. whiteness is bad. blacks are victims nonsense ****.

 

No it isn’t. Them being people, as in homosapiens is science fact

 

in jr high, yes

I do not think teaching grade schoolers about the Holocaust is a good idea

let kids keep their innocents for awhile longer

 

Have we always said slavery was bad? There are school districts that got in trouble for saying slavery wasn't bad. It was actually a good thing. That's teaching a moral opinion. So I'm going to assume you think it's okay to teach morals to students. Which then leads to the idea that "systemic racism is real" as a moral statement. There's no difference so it should be allowed.

 

Oh sweetie I love your innocence. That's not what someone who supports slavery would say.

 

Even if it means we don't teach kids about civics?

 

I’m pretty sure I get it. Back then they used the excuse they weren’t human (I’m pretty sure even back then many didn’t believe it and just wanted the free labor). If im in the wrong track here, feel free to correct me

 

It's more than that. On one hand they might have said they are different species, but that's rare. They understood enough that they wouldn't have been considered different species. More often than not they said things like they're a subspecies who have different traits. This in turn means certain people have a right to rule. And even then that's ignoring the social or structural reasons for slavery.

 

I'd just as soon drop history all together and focus in on maths and sciences if you can't separate your emotions from history. China is leaving us in the dust. I'm starting to envy their homogenous 97 percent 1 race population.

 

Yes if we have a problem with a foreign country over taking the US, clearly we need more math and science, and not better trained people to run our government. You know those people who study math and science who become scientists need to apply for government grants right?

 

People who study maths and sciences end up developing tech and advanced weapons of war. We gain absolutely jack **** with transgender story book time or teaching all the races how to hate each other so we are distracted with civil conflict.

yummy!

But I suppose you won't be convinced until you see our country slip further academically to the rest of the world. Oh...I'm sure you will probably call the metric "racist" because that's the go too playbook of liberals who don't like being proven wrong.

 

Where are they not allowed to?